Kobe on NBATV

Submitted by tnowell on Tue, 2013-11-05 19:01

November 05, 2013 6:01 pm PST

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Kobe Bryant joined Fan Night on NBATV to answer questions from Ernie Johnson, Greg Anthony and Chris Webber on where he’s at with his rehab, on the difficulty of trying to be patient during this whole process, the significance of his Twitter account avatar and other topics.

Kobe BryantQ: On any timetable for his return to the court:
Bryant: Not yet. I’m pushing it. This past week felt pretty good. We’re all being very smart about the process, taking our time and making sure I come back ready to go.

Q: On how tough it is for him to be patient during this process:
Bryant: It’s tough just because as a competitor, you want to get out there, help your team contribute and see what you can do. But at the same time, you have to use that competitiveness to take your time and be patient, and make sure when you come back, you come back as strong as possible to help the team be successful.

Q: On who would win between Paul Pierce and Joe Johnson, and if there was a one-on-one tournament, how he would fare and who would be his biggest challenge:
Bryant: Let’s start with Paul Pierce and Joe Johnson. I’d probably take Paul as well. (He) is one of the rare players in the league who can post up, play mid-range, go to the basket, shoot the deep ball, go leftcomfortably, go right comfortably, pull up and shoot comfortably either way. One on one, he’d be a tough cover to go along with his size. As far as myself, I think I’d hold my own. I think I’d do OK.

Q: On what he expects for him to be the most difficult thing to come back from and what might be the best thing that he’ll take out of this:
Bryant: I think the most difficult part is the process I’m going through right now which is the patience. To me, that’s the hardest part. The game to me isn’t necessarily difficult. I grew up fortunately understanding the fundamentals of the game, having good footwork, spacing, timing, and things of that nature. I feel I can adjust my game to whatever it is I can do physically, whether I have lift or whether I don’t have lift, whether have the same explosiveness or whether I don’t have the same explosiveness. I feel like I’ll be able to adjust just fine to that.

Q: On why it didn’t work with Dwight Howard last season:
Bryant: We have two different personalities. There’s a certain way I believe you have to approach the game in order to win championships. He had a different way that he felt like would work best, and because of that, it was tough to see eye to eye on a daily basis. But the second half of the season, I thought we played pretty darn well to go from where we were being out of the playoffs at the All-Star break to getting into the playoffs. Unfortunately I went down with an injury, but had I not, I think we would have given San Antonio a serious run for it.

Q: On 1225 on his Twitter and the #blackout and #bearhunt hashtags:
Bryant: 1225 is the birthday of our little dog and theblackout, I just like black.

Q: On whether the 1225 doesn’t signify ESPN’s ranking of the Lakers in the Western Conference and his ranking as the 25th best player:
Bryant: That’s purely coincidence. I think the square root of 1225 is actually 35 coincidentally. It’s just my dog’s birthday.

Q: On if he’s given advice or mentored Nick Young:
Bryant: It’s always about the execution of the game, studying the game and mentally preparing night in and night out on the defensive end as well as on the offensive end. It’s really important for two-guards to stuff the stat sheet and to do things in a myriad of areas – not just scoring. He certainly has the potential to do it and he has the athleticism to do it. I’ve been challenging him a little bit to do those things in each and every column.